I have a 2005 Honda 9.9 high thrust o/b on our sailboat.
A couple of months ago, the motor started acting up - it turned out to be two cracked spark plugs and a kinked throttle cable.
The plugs were obviously an easy fix, the throttle cable was a bit more of a pain.
With the new cable in, there wasn't a blind bit of difference - it still didn't work.
Today I pulled the carb off, and discovered that the throttle shaft was stuck quite firmly. It took a pair of pliers grabbing it hard to move the throttle. No wonder the cable had kinked.
To fix this - and I'm certain I can't be the only one with this problem - here's what I did.
To remove the throttle shaft, you need to undo the two small screws which hold the butterfly in place. Take that off, remove the nut on the end of the shaft on the accelerator pump side and then the shaft should come out.
This one didn't want to move, it was really stuck hard. So I very carefully - using fine sandpaper - cleaned the end of the shaft until it was shiny. At that point it pulled out, but still not without a fight.
Once it was out I cleaned the whole shaft until it was as perfect as I could get it. Then I tested the shaft back in the carburetor body again. This time it moved effortlessly and the problem was obviously fixed.
I re-assembled the carb and tested the return capability about 20 times and it's perfect.
So the reason the throttle cable kinked in the first place was that the throttle shaft was well and truly stuck. The cable was actually trying to close the throttle, which of course it shouldn't need to do. It should only need to pull the throttle open.
So if any of you have this problem, the fix is actually fairly easy.
A couple of months ago, the motor started acting up - it turned out to be two cracked spark plugs and a kinked throttle cable.
The plugs were obviously an easy fix, the throttle cable was a bit more of a pain.
With the new cable in, there wasn't a blind bit of difference - it still didn't work.
Today I pulled the carb off, and discovered that the throttle shaft was stuck quite firmly. It took a pair of pliers grabbing it hard to move the throttle. No wonder the cable had kinked.
To fix this - and I'm certain I can't be the only one with this problem - here's what I did.
To remove the throttle shaft, you need to undo the two small screws which hold the butterfly in place. Take that off, remove the nut on the end of the shaft on the accelerator pump side and then the shaft should come out.
This one didn't want to move, it was really stuck hard. So I very carefully - using fine sandpaper - cleaned the end of the shaft until it was shiny. At that point it pulled out, but still not without a fight.
Once it was out I cleaned the whole shaft until it was as perfect as I could get it. Then I tested the shaft back in the carburetor body again. This time it moved effortlessly and the problem was obviously fixed.
I re-assembled the carb and tested the return capability about 20 times and it's perfect.
So the reason the throttle cable kinked in the first place was that the throttle shaft was well and truly stuck. The cable was actually trying to close the throttle, which of course it shouldn't need to do. It should only need to pull the throttle open.
So if any of you have this problem, the fix is actually fairly easy.
